


Translation

by whitchry9



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Angst, Developing Relationship, Feels, Friendship, Implied Relationships, Language, Love, M/M, Reichenbach, hurt comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-18
Updated: 2013-08-18
Packaged: 2017-12-23 20:54:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/930989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitchry9/pseuds/whitchry9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because Sherlock and John can't use language like normal people. They have to go and invent their own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Translation

**Author's Note:**

> My first Johnlock fic, and it's rather mild. So... yup. Be kind.

Sherlock Holmes and John Watson were too annoyingly special to use language in a conventional manner. So they invented their own, mutually and immediately understood, from the moment Sherlock asked _Afghanistan or Iraq?_ which meant _you should come live with me in my flat, because I think you are a lovely specimen._

 

 _I don't even know your name_ meant _tell me what the name is of the man I just fell in love with,_ when it came from the lips of John Watson, thrown into this strange new world where words meant something completely different, yet were completely understood.

 

Sherlock and John didn't say _I love you_ like normal people. Instead they said _you're an idiot,_ and smiled, like it was a nice thing. (It was, because when they said it without a smile, like to Anderson and Lestrade, it actually meant they were an idiot.)

 

And they certainly didn't say _I would shove you up against that wall and snog you senseless if it weren't for half the Yard being here and the dead body_. Certainly not. Instead they just breathed _brilliant_ in the same tone of voice. _We can't giggle, it's a crime scene_ really meant _we can't kiss, it's a crime scene,_ which was rather similar, and would often result in them giggling anyway to expel their stupid nervous energy and adrenaline fuelled excitement that couldn't be relieved by pressing their faces together until they forgot to breathe.

 

 _I'm never bored_ meant just that, Mycroft, being Mycroft, somehow saw through their words and only smiled thinly. And it was true. John wasn't bored, but it wasn't just for the reasons everyone else thought. Sure, there were crimes and murders and chases, but there was also _heads in the fridge (sex in the bedroom), experiments (sex in the kitchen), and explosions (that were actually explosions)._

And John only smirked at Mycroft as he said _I'm never bored,_ and it was true in more ways than one.

 

When John told Irene adamantly that _if anyone out there still cares, I'm not actually gay,_ what he was trying to say was _so what if I'm gay, it's no one's business, and besides I am taken._

 

Mrs Hudson soon caught on, because when she came into their flat, she said _am I interrupting anything?_ rather than _I hope you boys are dressed_ , like she should have asked, since that one unfortunate incident. They began to suspect the rest of the world was in on it as well, what with 'confirmed bachelor John Watson' and everything.

 

So much was underneath those words, such innocent, innocuous words.

And yet they were so much _more._ Secrets that people didn't bother to look for were hidden inside them, because people didn't bother to look beneath the surface. (Sure, everyone suspected they were shagging, but no one could hear what they were really saying.)

 

Sometimes it was worse to know what lay beneath Sherlock's carefully constructed words. Like the phone call from the roof. _Keep your eyes fixed on me. Please, will you do this for me?_ It broke John's heart, because really, Sherlock was telling him _John please do this one last thing for me, just look at me please._

But he did.

And in his mind, _goodbye John,_ turned into _I love you John._

Because that's how they worked.

 

And in return, _I owe you so much,_ meant _I love you too, you prat._


End file.
